This is not living
by Jadeile
Summary: Prince Julien finds himself not having parents anymore, while his uncle has became the king. Maurice, of course, is there for him, but he alone isn't enough to fill the void that has suddenly formed in Julien's heart. The Prince needs to find a purpose for his life, and something to fill his days with. But what? This is a prelude to the cartoon, a glimpse into Julien's past.


**A/N:** Thanks to PB7 for betaing this.

* * *

Young Prince Julien sat in the comfortingly small space between his bed and the wall, staring at the direction of his door. Maybe tonight it would be his mom who would walk in to tell him good night. She and dad had been "not home" for a few days now and it was really starting to bring him down, especially because he wasn't allowed to go outside for some reason. There had been some sort of commotion when mom and dad left him with Maurice, but they never came back to tell him what it had been about like they usually did.

He really wanted to go out to see them if they weren't coming home to him, but Maurice said that he must not see what was out there. Well, actually, he "let that slip" when he "truly meant to say" that it would be much nicer to stay indoors right now and then go out when his Uncle King Julien had everything under control. "You see, he is new to this king business".

Apparently, his dad was not the king anymore for some reason.

Julien's ears perked up at the sound of footsteps behind the door, but then drooped back down when it was just Maurice again. He liked Maurice, but he liked his mom more.

"Prince Julien? Oh, there you are. Why are you sitting in that corner, your majesty?" Maurice asked with a bemused smile as he walked closer. There was something a little off about his expression, but Julien wasn't sure what.

"I dunno... why aren't mom and dad home yet?" Julien asked instead, and curled into a smaller ball, wrapping his tail protectively around himself.

Maurice paused and chewed on his bottom lip, apparently a little at a loss for what to say. Then he seemed to come to a conclusion and walked over to the bed, sitting down on the edge. He patted the spot next to him invitingly and waited. Julien looked from him to the spot a few times, and then reluctantly got up and took it. He was already taller than his caretaker, which was glaringly obvious when they were sitting next to each other.

"I'm afraid they aren't going to come back home at all, Prince Julien", Maurice said and placed a paw on the young lemur's shoulder. Julien looked at him with wide, frightened eyes. He didn't like the direction this conversation was taking. Not one bit.

"They aren't?" he asked with a very small voice, his eyes starting to sting. It was very rare for him to cry over something that wasn't trivial, and usually it was Maurice that made things better, not worse.

Something about Maurice's attitude visibly shifted in that instant. Even the tone of his voice was different when he spoke next.

"That is to say-! They decided that they would- move to another place! A farm. You see, the events of the other day were the last straw for your father. He reeeaally felt like he could use a break, so he and your mother decided to retire and give over the kingdom to your uncle. So they packed as little as they could and went to live to a very nice little farm on the other edge of the island. You know, with lots of tamarind trees and space to run around", he explained, much to Julien's confusion, even if it was mixed with relief. For a moment there, he had been fearing the worst.

"A... farm?" he asked slowly, to which Maurice nodded enthusiastically. Julien looked at his lap with a light frown, chewing this new information a bit.

"Why... didn't they take me with them?" he finally asked and looked up at his caretaker again. He was honestly glad his parents were alright and living in such a nice place, but he would have liked to go there too to be with them.

Maurice patted his shoulder and gave an understanding nod.

"You are needed here to be the next king if something happens to your uncle, you see. Your father, the previous king, decided to give the crown to your uncle, but only if you're to be the successor, like he always intended. You're important, Prince Julien. Keep that in mind. That's why you need to stay here, do you understand?"

Julien swallowed a lump in his throat. His parents trusted him to take care of the kingdom for them. Of course, that made sense. It was a huge responsibility and his uncle wasn't very good with that.

"Julien", Maurice said, bringing his attention back to him, "your parents are very proud of you. Don't you ever doubt that. And I'll always be here for you when they aren't. You're not alone."

Julien gave Maurice a bright smile at that, then wrapped his arms around the Aye-Aye to give him a big hug.

"Thank you, Mo-Mo! You're always the best!"

ooooo

Despite Maurice being able to initially cheer him up, Julien soon felt awfully lonely again. His family left a big void in his heart with their absence. After all, he had hero-worshipped his father and absolutely adored his mother. They had been his whole world and now he had nothing to fill the void with. Maurice tried his best to stand in for them, but it wasn't the same.

After weeks of this and nothing making it better, Maurice started taking him to places to see if they could find him a nice hobby to keep him busy. And that's when he found his passion in life.

"Hobbies? Well, I suppose my daughter likes to play music with a couple of her friends. Prince Julien could come over and listen to them this evening, see if he likes that", one of Maurice's acquaintances suggested. So they went over.

"See, Prince, this is a kabosy. I play it by running my fingers over the strings here. And that is a djembe, Ted there plays it by slamming his paws on it repeatedly. Lastly, Nita plays the sodina, she blows on it while pressing her fingers on the little holes", Dana explained while showing their guest the music-making instruments. Prince Julien nodded along, interested enough.

"I see. And that makes music...?" he asked, feeling a little doubtful. He had heard of music before, but both his uncle and his father, to an extent, had had something against it, so he hadn't really heard any outside of his mother occasionally singing to him.

Dana grinned at him.

"Oh, ye of little faith. Just sit back and listen while we blow your mind", she said and skipped over to her friends. Julien did as asked, crossing his legs and leaning his cheek against his right palm expectantly.

The music began. His ears perked up and his eyes widened while his jaw slowly dropped open. Then his tail started twitching. His foot soon followed, tapping to the beat. He lifted his head from his palm and a huge grin rose to his lips as his eyes lit up like they never had since his parents left.

"What is this?" he asked himself while his legs uncrossed themselves and started both tapping the floor. "What is this feeling? This need to move?"

Nobody heard him to even begin answering the questions, but that was of no importance. He was up and moving his body to the music with all the energy and enthusiasm in the world, beaming all the while.

Maurice, who was watching from the side and swaying slightly to the music, himself, grinned happily. If music was what would keep Julien happy, then he would make sure to get him the best music making device he could find.

ooooo

Julien flourished. He became the unquestionably best dancer among the lemurs. There wasn't a single move he couldn't pull and he made up things that nobody else could even dream to have the flexibility or stamina to do. Some claimed that a few of his moves shouldn't even be physically possible. His personal charisma skyrocketed with his newfound skills and confidence, and his dazzling smile did the rest to win the hearts of everyone. He reinvented dancing, he created songs with the keytar Maurice found for him, and he got lemurs into playing instruments. He got everybody into partying.

He was the King of the Party, and quite honestly a much more memorable and likable than the actual king. As a matter of fact the actual king wasn't all that liked in the first place with his tendency to sacrifice his subjects to the Sky Gods to keep away the fossa, among other schemes, even if his intentions were certainly good.

Unfortunately, all the noise from the parties attracted the fossa even more than normal and forced the king to ban partying, music, and all kinds of noisy fun. At least, that was the official announcement, and the fact that fossa attacks lessened directly afterwards gave it a nice ring of truth.

With no more parties, no more playing music beyond the lowest of the volumes in secret, and no more hanging out with more than the maximum of four lemurs in one place (family excepted), Prince Julien fell into a state of depression. His enjoyment for life was taken from him again, leaving nothing but emptiness in its wake.

"Maurice, what do you say we sneak out of the village tonight to that nice rocky beach and perfect my keytar solo? Sounds like fun, right?" Julien asked with a wide grin that honestly wasn't all that hopeful - more like desperate pleading in disguise.

Maurice bit his lip and glanced towards the window, then looked at Julien again. The answer was in his apologizing look before it left his mouth.

"I'm sorry, Prince Julien, but we just went out two nights ago. Your uncle is watching us already, we can't risk it yet", he said and patted Julien's paw reassuringly, "but what do you say we turn off all the lights and dance while humming? He won't notice that."

Julien gave him a small smile that didn't reach his eyes and nodded. It was better than nothing.

ooooo

When the status quo reached its peak and everything seemed to have become permanent, Julien started thinking of his parents again. They lived on a nice farm somewhere, safe from the fossa and safe from Uncle King Julien's laws. He would bet they had wild parties there every night.

Yes, they would play the raddest of music, they would have the coolest of lemurs attending, and they would dance all night long and only stop when the first rays of sunlight made the eyes of the drummer sting too much to keep the music coming. In his imagination, it was a paradise. It had to be; why else would his mother and father have gone there?

Prince Julien longed to leave this place and go there too. When one thought about it, he didn't need to stay here just because he was the next in line to be the king. Uncle King Julien could find himself a mate and make his own offspring that could follow in his footsteps. Surely his Father King Julien would understand his decision. It wasn't fair that he would get to leave for a fun life while his son would need to stay and suffer.

Now he would only need to find out where that farm was located. He would take Maurice with him and together they would leave this miserable party-less kingdom.

At least, that was the plan.

Then the dreams started. He didn't know what they meant, but they filled him with a growing sense of purpose, like strands of destiny tugging at him and urging him to reach out and grasp his chance. But they weren't about the farm at all; they were about this village, these people. There was still hope. Somewhere, sometime. Maybe not exactly like in the dream, but it must have been a sign of a better future.

He only needed to stay here and wait for it.

Prince Julien started smiling again and the light returned to his eyes. He started playing his keytar in secret to make sure he was ready to party when his vision came true.

"I don't want to survive, Maurice! I want to live!"

Maybe the future would be just around the corner.


End file.
